Alphas, A Tale of Vengeance
by Emiliya Wolfe
Summary: Okay so this is my first ever fanfic (and it's harder than it looks!) and I suck at summaries so please be nice! There's a powerful alpha in the Hale pack, and Sasha's sister convinces her that it's her friend Laura. What happens when she finds out it's actually Derek? And what happens when the two realise that they have one common cause: revenge? I do not own Teen Wolf characters
1. Chapter 1

Sasha ran.

Racing through the trees, all she could think about were the howls of her pack as each member of her family fell. Her sister, Nadia, the one who had convinced them to come to Beacon Hills, had been the first to go. A hunter had shot her; that much Sasha knew. After that, they had all been wary. Their parents had been killed a long time ago by hunters, and her siblings knew never to underestimate them.

It had been Sasha's idea to run towards Beacon Hills as fast as possible. Her reasoning had been that if they were among humans, then the hunters wouldn't dare try something. Plus, even if they did, once the werewolves had assumed their human form, they would get lost among the crowd. Hopefully.

However, she hadn't realised the other danger that was present in these woods. None of them had. An Alpha pack, one she had only heard stories of, had made its appearance. And for some reason, they seemed to enjoy going on killing sprees.

She heard another howl, and yet another joined it soon afterwards, the kind of gut-wrenching noise that made her want to turn back and fight. But she had never been good at fighting, and it was already too late for her twin brothers. She had felt her strength diminish with each of their deaths.

She glanced towards her oldest brother: Nathan. She could see the rage in his alpha-red eyes, as he tensed his jaw. Suddenly, a noise in the undergrowth behind them made them stop. Nathan crouched down beneath a tree, signalling her to take human form. Sasha frowned, but complied. Did he really think that they could pull off a human act now?

The person moved close enough that she could hear its heartbeat pounding rapidly, though instead of the nervousness she was expecting, she could sense... excitement? She felt a lump rise to her throat at the thought that someone was excited about the death of her family. What kind of monsters were these hunters?

Something moved in the corner of her vision, and she turned her head just in time to see Nathan jump on the hunter and tear it to shreds. Sasha blinked. She had never seen her usually composed brother do that. Then again, she had never felt so many deaths within her pack in such a short time.

'Come on sister,' Nathan said, his voice unusually raspy, as he was still transformed. 'Do you want revenge or not?'

Sasha's face hardened. Of course she did, what kind of question was that? She felt fur grow over her body, and her senses sharpen.

'Let's hunt down some hunters,' she smirked.

Her brother nodded his approval, and they turned back, searching for their prey.

The hunters didn't know what hit them.

When Nadia had told them that there was a new and powerful Alpha in Beacon Hills, Sasha didn't really care. However, Beacon Hills was home to the Hale pack, and Nadia was fast friends with Laura Hale, the Alpha. It stood to reason that she would want to help her old friend, since there had also been news of trouble brewing. Besides, it had only taken a matter of seconds for the pack to agree with Nadia; the last they had heard of Laura, she had been close to finding whoever had burned down her family – the same hunter who had killed Sasha's own parents.

However, Nathan, being the responsible Alpha that he was, had insisted on all of them being fully trained and able to take on whatever would hit them before going. Sasha snorted. Fat lot of help that had been.

But it had its uses, such as this case here. Sasha and Nathan dodged and weaved, pouncing and retreating alternately. Soon, four hunters were lying dead on the ground. Sasha's eyes lit up as she turned towards her brother victoriously.

Her joy was short-lived. She turned to see her brother locked in a vicious snarling match with the biggest werewolf she had ever seen. He had next to no hair on his head, and fangs that looked more like tusks than anything else.

'Ennis!'

Sasha's head snapped toward the noise. A woman with claws both on her hands and her feet was leaping towards the fighting pair. Sasha started to warn her brother, when a volley of arrows zipped through the trees, forcing her to duck. Amidst all the confusion, the hunters' backup had come. Sasha crouched low as to avoid all missiles, searching for her brother.

She found him pressed up against a tree, with the other two werewolves circling him.

'Nathan, come on!' she tried to tug at his sleeve.

'No,' he growled, shrugging her off. 'You need to go!'

'I'm not leaving you!' Sasha cried, hearing the sound of conflict come closer: the Alpha pack and the hunters seemed to have met.

'Go!'

And with that, he leapt over towards "Ennis", roaring his rage. Sasha followed him, jumping onto Ennis's back to try to confuse him. Another wave of arrows flew through the forest, narrowly missing Nathan.

_Not him too,_ Sasha thought desperately, clawing her way towards her brother once more. As she got to him, the sound of gunfire reached her ears, along with a fiery pain in her back. Immediately, she realised that she had been shot with a wolfsbane bullet; a shock of numbness was spreading from the area.

Another howl sounded from towards her left. It was Alyssa, the last member of their pack. It seemed that the bullets had touched her too.

'No, no, no,' Nathan repeated to himself, catching her. 'You really have to leave! Our parents would never forgive me if I let my baby sister get killed by hunters too.'

'I don't care, Nathan,' she said determinedly. 'I'm not leaving my family.'

Another round of shots, and once again she was too slow to react. Nathan threw her to the ground, as he roared, a sound that rang through the entire forest. Her eyes widened at the impact.

'Go!'

This time it was an order from her alpha. She couldn't disobey, not if she had tried. A roar mingled with his voice as he said it again, before bounding off in the direction of the howl. Sasha started running, half-transformed back into human, unable to fully control her shifting. She had never been very good at it anyway. Tears streamed down her face as she stumbled through the forest, unable to stop herself.

Then all of a sudden the ground sloped downwards, and she tripped, rolling down the hillside, brambles ripping her clothes and tree branches breaking under her weight. Still sobbing, she forced herself up, feeling the effects of the bullets sink in. She swayed, and almost fell, but her brother's order kept her going, somehow. Her vision blurred through the dizziness, and she staggered almost drunkenly on until she hit something else. Something warm. A body.

As this realisation sunk in, she panicked, fearing that she had run into the alpha pack. But lifting her head up, she saw a man not much older than herself, and a teenage boy who looked as scared as she felt.

_These must be Laura's pack,_ she thought to herself, and struggled to her feet once more.

'Please, you have to help me, you have to save us, you have to do something!' she jabbered, eyes looking wildly from one face to the other. 'The hunters are right behind me.'

The two men looked at each other. Then, the darker, older one, spoke, slowly and clearly.

'And just why, should we help you?'


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own no Teen Wolf characters, or places; only my own :)**

* * *

Derek looked at the bloodied girl in front of him distrustfully. It wasn't that he didn't believe her but... He didn't believe her. He wouldn't put it past Deucalion to somehow sneak a member of his pack into their circle of trust, only to stab them in the back. He wouldn't put _anything_ past Deucalion, except maybe suicide. That: he could not imagine him doing.

Scott, on the other hand, was a totally different story. He saw this bedraggled, beaten up girl in front of him, and his only instinct was to help. He wondered what horrors had happened for her to ask a complete stranger for their help. Werewolves were very prideful creatures, he had noticed, or at least Derek was. In any case, he resolved, as the girl's legs gave way, he was going to help her. First: by catching her before she hit the ground.

He looked up at Derek, and the older werewolf knew he was screwed before he had uttered a word. He tried anyway.

'No, Scott. No.'

'But, we have to help her Derek,' Scott half-asked. 'We can't just leave an innocent girl to die.'

'First, we don't know how innocent she really is. Second, have you thought that this might be a trap?'

'A trap?' Scott asked bemusedly. 'What's she going to do, bleed on us?'

'Not like that,' Derek retorted, rolling his eyes. 'I meant, she could be a plant.'

Scott looked confused. Derek tried again.

'A spy, for the Alpha pack.'

'I'm not a spy,' Sasha interrupted. 'I swear I'm not.'

'That's what a spy would say.'

'Well I'm not!' she snapped.

Sasha's head was pounding. She could hardly think from the pain, and this annoying Derek guy, was not helping. Howling could be heard from further ahead, along with more gunfire. _Run,_ her mind whispered,_ run as far away as you can, and don't look back._

She tried to get up, and collapsed back into Scott's arms.

'Look, Derek, we have to go,' Scott tried. 'There's no time for this, the alphas and the hunters could be here any second. We're taking her with us, and that's that.'

'Fine,' Derek said harshly. 'But this conversation isn't over.'

He looked back towards the forest.

'They're stronger and faster. You're going to have to carry her.'

'I can do it,' Scott replied, hefting Sasha into his arms. She was surprisingly light, and barely conscious.

'I have to think of a plan,' Derek muttered, glancing back over his shoulder.

Their trail would be unmistakeable, what with all the blood pouring out of the girl's wounds. Hell, her scent filled his nostrils, there was hardly anything else he could detect. He needed to find a way to keep the wolves at bay, at least for some time. He wasn't too worried about the hunters just yet – they were the lesser of two evils.

He made sure that Scott was still following him, and saw the girl's eyes changing colour. The wolfsbane was making her transformation unpredictable, and she swayed between werewolf and human, claws extending and retracting incessantly. That wasn't what caught his eye though, no. It was the glimpse of red that kept appearing in her eyes, meaning...

'Shit,' he said to himself. 'She's an alpha.'

'What?' Scott asked.

He didn't have time for this. The alpha-red eyes only served to convince him that they should just leave her for the hunters. Scott, however, wouldn't hear of it. And that was how he came up with his brilliant plan.

'Do you know what the _Beau Geste _effect is?' he asked the girl.

'The what?' Scott said stupidly.

'I wasn't talking to you,' Derek brushed him off, looking at Sasha.

She seemed to take a moment to process the fact that he was talking to her, and then nodded.

'Can you do it now?'

She nodded again, shaking her head in order to clear it.

Scott's next question was cut off by a series of howls. Derek started, then the girl howled, and then Derek somehow howled differently, until he would have thought there was an entire pack in the woods, if he hadn't known better. Scratch that, it sounded like different small packs: both betas and alphas. He realised that this was what Derek was talking about: he had created confusion within the forest.

'Nice,' he said approvingly.

'Yeah, well, it probably won't convince the alphas,' Derek replied, shooting another look back. 'Hurry up; we're almost at the house.'

Scott grumbled something about his legs killing him, but complied, and sprinted the final length to the Hale house. Well, more like mansion.

As they entered they were met with the sight of Isaac, Cora and Stiles, who burst out – as per usual – with a million things to say.

'Who's she? What's she doing here? Oh my god, is that blood? Yep, it's blood, lots of blood. I'm just going to stand over here now, you know, don't mind me, you don't need me here.'

Running his hand through his hair, and looking as though he'd quite like to puke, Stiles made his way towards the window, before coming back. He made as if to say something, but Derek beat him to it.

'Stiles?'

Stiles swallowed the question he was about to ask.

'Yeah?'

'Shut up.'

'Okay, will do,' Stiles went back to the window.

'Derek,' Cora said warningly, as Scott put Sasha down. 'She's not healing properly.'

'What do we do? She'll die otherwise...' Scott fretted.

Isaac nodded.

Derek looked almost as though he would refuse to help there and then, but instead heaved a sigh and made his way towards the girl writhing on the floor.

'This may hurt a bit,' he told her.

She didn't even notice as he broke an arm. Derek frowned, _so I can't trigger the healing process with pain_. So instead, he simply knocked her out.

'What the hell did you just do?!' Scott shouted, shocked.

'If you're unconscious, you can't stop the healing process,' Derek explained. 'Actually, there might be something that will speed it up even more.'

'What's that?' Stiles asked, curiosity overcoming his disgust.

'She needs to somehow shift into her wolf form, the form that heals faster. But I don't know how to do that,' he replied, frowning a little.

'I do,' his sister replied, surprising everyone in the room.

'You do?' Derek asked.

'Everyone, give me your jackets,' she said as a response.

Shooting odd looks at each other, the others complied. Cora proceeded to dump the jackets on Sasha, making sure her bare feet and hands were covered, as well as her neck.

'And that was useful because...?' Stiles trailed off enquiringly.

'Body heat,' Cora explained. 'It makes your heart rate go faster. Ever wonder why anger or (she looked at Scott) love makes you feel hot? It's the accelerated heart beat, and it works the other way around too.'

'Good to know,' Stiles said, nodding his head.

'Guys,' Isaac called their attention, speaking for the first time since Scott and Derek returned.

They all watched as Sasha began to twitch and jerk, until she had finally assumed her werewolf form.

'Holy crap,' Stiles said in wonder.


	3. Chapter 3

'Holy crap,' Stiles repeated as he looked down on the sleeping wolf. 'She looks like your sister.'

Derek raised an eyebrow in response, but he had to admit that it was true. Laura had been able to fully shift into a wolf, with no "in-between traits" as Cora had liked to put it when they were young. You wouldn't believe that the wolf had been a girl moments before. The only thing they had in common was the sleek black pelt of the wolf, and the straight black hair of the girl.

'So Scott,' Stiles said, breaking the short silence. 'Does she have a name?'

'Why me?' asked Scott. 'Derek was there too.'

'Yeah, but come on, it's Derek,' Stiles laughed.

The said person just looked at him.

'Come on, you know what I mean,' Stiles said. 'Only Scott would want to rescue some random werewolf when you're being hunted too.'

'He has a point,' acknowledged Isaac.

'I... I don't actually know,' Scott admitted.

'What? You mean we're saving nameless werewolves now? What has the world come to?' Stiles threw his hand up in the air.

His phone started vibrating, so he took it out and looked at the caller ID.

'Okay, so... That was my dad, and that was my cue to leave,' he started to leave. 'Scott, you coming?'

'What? Oh, yeah, sure.'

'See you guys tomorrow,' Stiles said in a sing-song voice, leaving the door wide open.

Isaac muttered something about needing to sleep as he had school in the morning, leaving Cora and Derek alone with the sleeping wolf. Eventually Cora spoke.

'I'll close the door.'

'No, don't,' Derek grasped her arm. 'There's something I've been meaning to show you.'

He took her outside, showing her where he had once buried their sister's body. Cora stood there for a long while, just staring at the spot. Seeing her eyes misting over, Derek went to comfort her, but she stopped him with a motion.

'I don't see the point in this. She's dead. She's not coming back. There's no point in remembering.'

And with that, she turned on her heels and disappeared inside.

Derek stayed a long time outside after that, wondering just how much the effect of losing their entire family – Peter aside – had had on his little sister whilst she was gone. He also wondered just how she felt, when she realised that he had never looked for her. He wondered if she would ever forgive him. He knew that he would never forgive himself.

* * *

Two days later, Sasha woke up to see sunlight streaming onto her face. She groaned and tried to bury herself under the covers, only to find that her "covers" were in fact jackets. Lots of jackets. Five, to be precise.

_That's odd..._ she thought to herself, pushing them away and getting up. Or trying to get up. She groaned in pain as she lay back down, feeling shocks run up her spine. She frowned, feeling her back, discovering several neatly sewed up bullet wounds. And that's when it all came back to her.

_Run!_

That hadn't been her thoughts; that had been Nathan, ordering her to flee. Ordering her to leave the pack to fend for itself. What was left of the pack, anyway. She felt a lump rise to her throat as she remembered the howls of her brothers and sisters.

_Where are the rest of them?_ She wondered, before finally noticing that she didn't recognise the room she was lying in. _More importantly, where the hell am I?_

Sasha got up onto her elbows and surveyed her surroundings. To call the room bare was an understatement. She was lying on some sort of scruffy couch, and there were a couple of chairs around a table at the edge of the room. But what caught her attention was the room itself. Half of the ceiling looked like it was about to cave in, and the walls were scorched, as if there had been some sort of fire. The floor was covered with ash and muddy tracks, but who would use this abandoned place as a home? She guessed that this must be some kind of training room – remote and deserted, so nobody could catch them practicing. Her family had one back home, although it was in slightly better shape, and her cousins actually had one in their house.

She heard footsteps coming from above her, and realisation of the previous night's events dawned. At least, she thought it was the previous night, though she wasn't sure how long she had been out cold. A guy appeared in the doorway, looking vaguely familiar, and a girl followed hot on his heels. It was obvious that they were brother and sister, even without the family resemblance.

'Feeling better?' asked the guy.

Sasha wasn't sure if he was sincere or not. She quickly gulped down her tears, unwilling to show any sign of weakness before she knew who they were. She remembered where he had seen him before: she had finally found her sister's friend Laura's pack. Ignoring his question, she asked immediately.

'Where is your Alpha?'

The sibling glanced at each other before turning towards her.

'Here,' the guy replied, a hint of amusement tingeing his voice despite the circumstances.

Sasha frowned.

'That's not possible. My sister told me it was Laura, and Laura was definitely a girl's name the last time I checked,' she turned towards the girl. 'Are you Laura?'

'No.'

The girl replied almost venomously, making Sasha feel uncomfortable at the defenceless position she was in. She scrambled off the couch into a half-crouched position, ignoring the jolt of pain. It would soon heal. The guy quickly raised his hands as a sign of peace.

'Woah, you don't want to be making any sudden movements for the moment.'

'Where's Laura?' Sasha repeated her question, eyes darting towards the doorway where yet another person had walked in. A teenager, by the looks of it.

'She's... not here,' the guy said, eyes suddenly on the floor. 'I'm the alpha now.'

Sasha put two and two together.

'You're her brother?' it was more a statement than a question.

'Yes. What did you want with her?'

'My pack,' Sasha started, then interrupted herself. 'What's left of my pack is searching for her. My older sister was good friends with her, and when she heard of a powerful Alpha rising in the Hale pack, she guessed that Laura managed to do what she set out to do.'

'And what was that?' he asked guardedly.

'I... I don't know,' Sasha admitted. 'She never said. But she did tell me that the pack was in danger, and that it was our duty to help.'

'Somehow, I have trouble believing your story,' the guy snorted.

'And why is that?' Sasha felt her pulse rising.

_Don't get angry,_ she told herself. _It's just another idiot who won't believe you. Where's Nathan when you need him?_ Her brother had always been good at negotiating with the other packs. Besides, alpha to alpha would be a much better conversation.

'Because you're an alpha,' he stated.

'Wh-what?' Sasha spluttered. 'No I'm not!'

'Lie all you want, but I saw your eyes flash red in the forest two nights ago.'

Sasha looked from one face to the other. The guy folded his arms, looking threatening, but his sister seemed to have realised that she was telling the truth.

'Derek,' she touched his arm.

'What?' he snapped back.

'I think she's telling the truth. Her heartbeat stayed steady.'

'Of course I'm telling the truth!' Sasha burst out. 'Look, if you want proof, all we need to do is find my brother; _he's _the real alpha! Or even my cousin, Alyssa. One of them must have reached town by now, they'll tell you the same thing.'

'If they had reached town,' the guy who stood a little way off said. She had almost forgotten about him 'Then why haven't they come here yet?'

'Maybe they haven't had time.'

'Not enough time in two days?' he asked.

_Two days... And the other guy, Derek, said two nights..._

'That can't be possible,' she thought aloud, trailing off: _unless..._

'We didn't see anyone else in the woods when we went to hide the trail,' Derek said, more gently this time. 'There were only bodies.'

_Only bodies..._

Sasha pulled herself out of her morbid thoughts and shook her head adamantly.

'No. No, it's not them.'

'Look, I don't actually know what your name is yet,' the sister said.

'It's Sasha,' she replied quietly.

'Cora,' she introduced herself, before continuing. 'I'm sorry to have to be the one to say this, but Sasha... your family is dead.'


	4. Chapter 4

Isaac walked into the Hale house to see Derek and Cora standing over the new girl, who was crouching – out of fear or defiance he didn't know – and decided that now might be a good time to call Scott. Or Stiles. Whichever one answered their phone first.

They arrived just in time to hear Cora's last sentence.

'- your family is dead.'

For once in his life, Stiles didn't have anything to say. He and Scott just looked at each other wordlessly, the latter remembering the howls he had heard in the forest. There had to be four or five at the least in the woods out there.

'Stiles,' Scott said quietly. 'Has your dad searched the area yet?'

'No, not yet. Nobody's reported anyone missing,' Stiles looked at the wolves. 'I guess that's because no one normal _is_ missing.'

'Derek,' Scott said aloud. 'Come on, we'll search the forest just in case.'

Derek looked as though he might like to protest, but thought better of it and just gave a sharp nod. Scott turned towards the girl, who he found out was called Sasha.

'Hey,' he said softly. 'It might not be them. We'll look, just to be sure. You don't know if any got away.'

Sasha nodded, jaw clenched. The boys left, leaving Cora to watch over, or more precisely keep an eye on, the werewolf. She thought that she would kick, or scream, or cry, but she did none of these things. Instead she just whispered, more to herself than Cora, seven words: "You knew it. You knew it already" and then got up, looking warily at her.

'So you're Laura's sister?'

Cora nodded.

'I'm sorry for your loss.'

The words sounded hollow to Cora, coming from a girl who may have just lost her entire family in one night. The same way Cora had the night of the fire. She still had nightmares about their screams, the smell of sizzling flesh, as they tried to fight their way out. She had to admit, Sasha was handling the news much better than she had, as she returned her thoughts to the problem at hand.

'How is it possible that I survived those wounds?' Sasha was asking.

'Oh, I just speeded up the healing process,' Cora said dismissively.

'How?' Sasha asked again, wanting to focus on something, _anything_, other than what had happened. She was too proud to show how it affected her, and from what Nadia had told her; the same thing had happened to the girl in front of her.

'When you're transformed. I heated up your body temperature.'

'Oh,' Sasha said. 'With the jackets?'

Cora nodded.

'Thank you.'

'For what?' the younger girl asked.

'Saving my life,' Sasha said. 'How can I repay you?'

Cora looked at her oddly.

'I owe you. Actually I seem to owe you and your brothers,' Sasha added. 'I'd like to repay my debt.'

Cora snorted.

'Scott's not my brother. As for repaying your debt, well, you'll have to talk to Derek about that, it's his pack,' she started, and then looked at the girl standing in front of her.

_This is someone I could get used to, _the youngest Hale thought. _Derek should keep her around, at least for a while._

'Come on, I'll get you something to eat. You must be famished after everything, and I'll explain our situation,' Cora motioned for Sasha to follow her, thinking that she may as well have a solid ally in the times to come.

* * *

Sitting at the small table in the kitchen, Sasha waited as Cora moved lithely about, clattering pots and pans as she heated up some pasta. _It all feels just so unreal_, Sasha thought to herself. _Then again, that's how Nadia had described our parents' death as well_. She and the twins had been too small to fully understand anything back then. She only remembered feeling confused, bewildered, and as if she was going to burst into tears at any moment. _However_, she resolved, _it won't come to that this time if what they say is true._

To distract herself, she asked Cora the first thing that came to mind, as the younger girl set out plates for them.

'What time is it?'

'Five,' the girl replied, amused. 'I suppose I would have lost track of time too, if I had been out that long.'

'So... Why are you eating too? I mean, unless you always have dinner at five,' Sasha added hurriedly. She didn't want to get on the bad side of absolutely everybody here, though she felt it might be a lost cause for Derek.

'I,' Cora blushed. 'I never like to eat alone. I'm sorry, I just thought... Well, if you want to be left alone I completely under-'

'It's fine,' Sasha said quickly, smiling at the other girl.

And it was fine. They both chatted away like schoolgirls for a while, though both were careful not to bring anything up about their pasts. It was nice to forget for a while. Sasha learnt that Cora was only a year younger than her, 17, and that she and her brother were also born as werewolves. Her uncle, Peter, also lived in Beacon Hills, though he and Derek weren't on the best of terms at the moment. In turn, Cora asked about she had been brought up, eagerly comparing the ways of a different werewolf family.

'So can all of your family turn fully into wolves?' she asked with interest.

Sasha frowned.

'No, only my aunt, and even then, only when she was made an alpha. Why, can yours?'

'Well, Laura was able to,' Cora replied. 'How do you do it?'

'I don't know,' Sasha shook her head. 'I used to ask my aunt, but she would just say that I would learn when I was older.'

'But you can now, can't you?'

'No!' Sasha laughed. 'My brother Nathan was the most transformed out of any of us, and he looked like this grotesque man-beast thing.'

'But,' Cora didn't understand. 'Yesterday, when I forced you to turn... you were a wolf. You could have been mistaken for a large Husky, actually.'

Sasha looked at her in puzzlement.

'Really?' she asked.

'So I guess it's not a permanent thing,' Cora mused. 'I mean, it's not like you had any knowledge of it beforehand. Maybe it was because you became the Alpha.'

'I'm not the Alpha!' Sasha shouted, before calming down. 'I mean, I'm not the alpha in my pack. There are at least three people who came here older than me.'

'So what Derek saw...'

'Must have been a trick of the light,' Sasha said quickly. 'It had to have been.'


	5. Chapter 5

Sasha watched as Derek tried to train Boyd and Isaac. He was an undeniably good fighter; she could see that, mixing tactics and force with a precision she had only seen her older brother use. However, when it came to teaching, he really _sucked._

Okay well, maybe not that badly. But he had no patience, expecting them to master complicated moves within a manner of minutes, and he had a short temper. You could see him get visibly frustrated at the lack of progress, which only made Isaac and Boyd's attempts get sloppy as they tried to attack him. They worked surprisingly well as a team, but as Derek kept reminding them, they were just so _predictable._ It was time Sasha did something.

'I know how I can help,' she told Cora, as she slid off the makeshift obstacle she was perched on.

Cora grunted in acknowledgment, concentrated on her push-ups. _And I thought my family worked out a lot..._ Sasha thought, making her way to the "battlefield".

Derek was surprisingly compliant when she asked to take over the training, and she had a feeling he was rather relieved. This way, he could study Isaac and Boyd's moves from the sidelines, and though he wasn't going to tell her, he could judge Sasha's fighting style, and whether she would be a threat. This was done more out of habit than anything else: Cora had taken a liking to the new girl, and he trusted her judgement. Almost. Besides, as his sister had pointed out to him, there was no faking the look she got when told about her family. He remembered that same look on Laura's face before they had fled Beacon Hills seven years ago.

Sasha stepped into the same spot he had been in a few seconds before, and took a deep breath. This was the way to prove her usefulness to this pack. Her family had come here to help, and their deaths only strengthened her resolve to do so. She would not let them simply die in vain.

And now she understood Derek's frustration. Boyd especially, replicated the moves Derek had taught him, never combining things, never going for weak points. Isaac was a little bit better, but fundamentally the same. So she decided to do a little coaching of her own.

'Let your instincts drive you,' she said.

They looked at each other with wide eyes.

'But what if we can't control it?' asked Boyd.

'It doesn't matter,' Sasha replied. 'We're all werewolves here, Stiles excepted.' She nodded towards the two boys to the side. 'You're over-thinking everything you're doing. Just, find your own style. As Derek said: do something unexpected.'

Derek and Cora glanced at each other, curious as to what would happen next. Boyd charged at Sasha, reverting to brute force as a tactic, his eyes glowing yellow. At the same time, Isaac jumped at her, claws aiming to rip open her belly. Sasha approved of this new method: before, they had tried going at her one by one. Now with the wolf instinct overriding human sense of fairness, they combined their strength to bring the enemy down. An enemy that suddenly wasn't there anymore.

Sasha leapt over Boyd with ease, letting her instincts do the fighting for her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shape move, and quickly slashed downwards, claws ripping through Isaac's leg. He fell to the floor with a yelp, eyes glinting with anger. And so it went on, the two newly turned werewolves getting more and more annoyed until they had fully turned, and the three were attacking each other openly.

Cora had stopped her workout, and now looked on appreciatively, thinking that this way of teaching certainly went a lot faster than Derek's. The latter frowned, on the lookout for a problem. What Sasha was doing was dangerous and irresponsible, but when he went to stop it, Cora held him back. _Not yet,_ her look seemed to plead.

Then a breeze came through one of the smashed in windows, past Scott and Stiles, and straight towards the fighting trio, filling their nostrils with the stench of human flesh. Isaac threw himself towards the back of the room, controlling himself in a way that no one knew he had the willpower to do. Boyd, on the other hand, was a different story. He launched himself towards Stiles, only to be smacked to the ground by Derek, who growled at him, ordering him to change back.

'And that,' Derek snarled, turning towards Sasha. 'Is why we don't let them change whilst training.'

'Why?' Sasha replied, standing her ground. 'It's not as if Stiles was even _touched_.'

'It's dangerous!' he retorted.

'That's the point! At least my method will actually help them survive!'

'And just what is that supposed to mean?'

'You teach them to move like we do!' Sasha shouted, gesturing towards Boyd. 'They won't stand a chance against an alpha, they're so predictable!'

They both stopped, panting for breath. Derek's gaze flickered towards the rest of his pack, who were watching the scene avidly. He tried to compose himself, folding his arms.

'And what do you suggest they do?' he asked touchily.

'They'll never be as strong, or as fast as an alpha. They'll only get by if they surprise them,' she explained, also realising that they had been yelling.

'Prove it.'

'Wh- what?' Sasha asked, momentarily taken aback.

'You said yourself that you weren't an alpha. Fight against me, and prove that they'd have a better chance if they fought like you,' Derek said, smirking.

True, he still thought that she was an alpha, although he had revised his theory about her belonging to the Alpha pack, but she had no pack, and therefore would theoretically be as weak as any beta in his own, rather large, pack.

'Fine.'

'Okay then,' Derek said, slightly surprised that she agreed.

Then again, why should he be? He remembered the way he had been when he had learnt about the fire, before he had even believed the stories. The only way to deal with the pain was to get angry, and the only way to deal with anger was to-

Thump. Sasha had already kicked him in the stomach, while he had been lost in his thoughts. He shook his head to clear it, and got ready to fight her. _You don't even know who you're messing with_, he thought. Derek was the master of anger. Anger was what defined him. Anger was his anchor, for crying out loud. Anger, was something he did best.

He had to give it to her though, she fought well. Weirdly, in fact, and the match was pretty even. He couldn't understand why, and it frustrated him every time she landed a hit on him. It was as if... she had no form or style whatsoever. He couldn't get to where she was coming from, and although he was stronger, and technically better, he couldn't get a grip on her. She dodged and weaved his attacks, and whenever he thought he would pin her down, she moved differently from what he expected. It wasn't logical.

Eventually, he started to fight with earnest. Not to attack, well, possibly to maim, but not to permanently damage her. It freed his mind, and he managed to corner her. He had used that move a couple of times before, so he was ready for it when he pounced and she managed to get behind him. In fact, he had been expecting it. There were only so many places to go from a corner. So he doubled his jump, using the now bare wall as a momentum to add to his strength when he got to her.

And promptly fell to the floor.

'You're dead,' he stated.

Sasha was squirming beneath him to no avail. He had her pinned firmly down on the floor by the shoulders, and there was no way out. She stared at him in defiance, determined to not let him win. Her eyes, he noticed, were forest green. There were no traces of blue or brown in them, just green. Somebody behind them, Cora maybe, coughed.

Sasha reddened, realising just how close they were. Realising also, for the first time, just how hot Derek was, and that her left hand was pressed against his well defined abs. _How the hell did I not notice that before?_

Embarrassed, Derek got off her, looking away. Only to be knocked to the floor again, this time by Sasha. She looked over him, the hint of a smile traced on her lips.

'Dead,' she repeated.

Cora laughed. Derek shot to his feet, and got back into a stance to continue fighting when he finally understood what was so odd. Sasha had a wild look in her eyes, the kind that he had only encountered whilst fighting turned werewolves on the full moon. The night when it was barely controllable for most. He pieced together all of the things: the fact that her fighting was totally unpredictable, why it seemed as though she had no clue of what she was doing, and why she never gave away her attack, not even glancing at the place she would attack. Why she was so adamant on doing everything by instinct.

'Turn,' he growled, grasping her shirt and shoving her against the wall.

'Derek,' Scott started from behind him.

'Not now, Scott,' Derek said, eyes never leaving Sasha's face.

Sasha was thoroughly terrified. Before, it had seemed all like fun and games. She had always enjoyed sparring with her siblings, and Derek proved to be no exception. But now... She gulped, wondering what to do. Her feet weren't even touching the ground. Derek shook her roughly, knocking whatever thoughts she had into oblivion.

'Turn!' he growled again, only this time his voice had that commanding note that only an Alpha could use.

She quickly complied, her nose elongating into a snout, her fingernails extending until they were claws, her ears knifing their way through her hair. And her eyes turning bright green.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it's taken so long to update. I was flat-hunting for next year in uni :D (kind of new to that too)**

**Before you start, I'd like to thank all of you who are following this story (it means a lot)**

**and especially to Lunatic63 and megladon1616 for my first ever reviews! This chapter's for you ;)**

* * *

Derek grunted in confirmation, and released her. She fell to the floor, and quickly scrambled to her feet and out of sight into the forest. He let her go; she didn't have anywhere else to be. _Or anyone else to go to_, he thought with a stab of guilt.

'Derek,' Cora started. 'Is she a –'

'Not here,' Derek hushed his little sister, and grabbed her roughly by the arm, dragging her out of the house, leaving the others in bewildered silence.

Once they were safely out of earshot, Cora began again.

'Did I see what I think I saw?'

'Yeah,' Derek said. 'I can't believe it. A werewolf born on the full moon.'

'Just like Laura,' Cora smiled slightly, wonder in her voice. 'That makes two that we know of. We should count ourselves lucky.'

'That depends on your definition of luck.'

Derek ran a hand through his hair, thinking. Werewolves born on the full moon had the same characteristics as normal werewolves, only enhanced. On the plus side, they were often faster and had better senses than the usual, however they could also become a liability, since they were twice as impulsive and couldn't control themselves as well on the full moon. Laura was extremely determined – but dangerous. It was probably her impulsive nature and chaotic fighting style that had allowed their uncle to kill her. As Sasha was now separated from her pack, she would be twice as dangerous as their sister had been.

'So what do we do?'

'I don't know, Cora!' Derek cried, exasperated. 'Let me think...'

'Well I'll tell you what we _should _do,' Cora said matter-of-factly. 'We should help her.'

Derek stared at his sister. In the few short weeks since their reunion, he had never seen Cora act compassionately towards anyone, save family perhaps, and even then...

'If we don't get her on our side, and she obviously wants to be, then you can be sure that one of your many enemies will use her against us.'

Derek let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding. Of course. Cora was thinking in strategic terms. But then he saw a flicker of something in her eyes, betraying her for half a second. And that was what made his mind up. He would do this for the good of his sister, and would try to convince himself that it was the good of the pack. _And that I won't act on selfish reasons,_ he added to himself, remembering the way her green eyes had seemed to touch his very soul. He shook his head,_ I'm imagining things..._

'So this is what we'll do...'

* * *

When Cora returned to the pack, she found them – much to her amusement – almost in the same places as she had left them.

Stiles started immediately: 'What was that for? Why aren't we in the secret? Come on, after everything we've been through, there are no secrets between us now. We're like buddies –'

Cora gave him her best flat look.

'Well not buddies. Comrades, if you prefer the term. We're on the same side...'

'Stiles,' Scott said simply.

Stiles shut up.

'What's happening?' Scott asked.

'I thought –' Cora put her best lying face on. It was a good one, but she just hoped that no one else had been able to see the flash of green in Sasha's eyes. 'I thought she was a beta, not an alpha. You know Derek thinks the opposite.'

Scott frowned. Did she really think they were such idiots? Cora hastened to add.

'If you're wondering why Derek left, it was because he needed to track her down again. Make sure she did nothing stupid. I had to talk whilst he was hunting – she's obviously well-seasoned in covering her tracks.'

'Why did you think she was a beta?' asked Isaac, a little suspiciously.

'Well, I didn't think she acted like an alpha, did you?' Cora rejoined smoothly.

That seemed to satisfy the rest of them, or at least make them think for a while. Cora took advantage of the silence to sit outside on the porch. She had never lied to her pack before, and oddly she didn't feel too bad about it. Then again, she hadn't felt much of anything recently, besides anger.


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay so this is where the story starts to drift away from the main plot...**

* * *

Derek had scoured the forest for hours in vain. He noted that although there was no sign of Sasha, there was also no sign of the struggle of several nights ago in the forest. Many of the bodies he had found earlier had disappeared, along with any trace of the hunters: no traps, no tripwires, nothing. The police must have caught on at last. And with that knowledge, he loped off to find Sasha.

As he had guessed, she was at the morgue. Every drape had been uncovered, to show every mangled, scratched, bitten or shot body. Sasha was standing a little to the side, eyes on the floor. If he took her expression out of context, he might have thought she was tired. But it was in this context. And she was not tired. Derek knew that look all too well.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the slightest idea on what to do when somebody had that look. He was saved the trouble when Sasha spoke.

'You were right.'

Derek had to strain his ears to catch the sentence, barely more than a whisper. She didn't sound sad, just resigned. And in a way, that was worse. He took a step forwards to comfort her, before he realised what he was doing. He didn't know how to comfort someone. What do you say to someone who has lost everything? Even he didn't have the answer, though he had been on the other side of this conversation many times. But he couldn't say nothing, so he opted for the safest choice.

'I didn't want to be.'

Without prompting, Sasha went towards the end corpse.

'This was my sister. Her name was Nadia. She was friends with your sister Laura, and I think Cora would have liked her. She was the one to choose to come here, even though it meant risking her safety. She knew what she was getting into.'

She gently laid the sheet back over her sister's face, and moved on to the next body, and the next, and commemorated them in this fashion. Derek realised that he had helped in some way, by being there; he was witness in some way to the lives and deaths of Sasha's pack. Soon, nearly half of the bodies in the room were covered.

Just as he was about to say something consoling, Derek spotted a specific body in the room: it was Ennis. All thoughts of compassion fled his mind, as he asked, rather stupidly.

'What's Ennis doing there?'

Sasha frowned, and turned to see what he was looking at.

'Oh... That's the guy who my brother and I were fighting before he told me to go,' she said distractedly.

Derek looked at Sasha in amazement, and then at Ennis. Two of her family had managed to kill him in one night? He felt as though his pack was suddenly not quite up to scratch, that they were an embarrassment. Though maybe he shouldn't judge them so lightly – after all, they were still new at this and had no experience. He felt a little guilty for even thinking of them as lesser. They were _his _pack after all, and they reflected him and his choices. He started to ask Sasha how they had managed it, if she could tell him exactly how the Alpha had been killed and how it had affected her brother – also an Alpha. Had he become more powerful as a result?

But as he opened his mouth to speak, he saw the desolate look on Sasha's face, and closed it again, feeling guilty. He looked at her, and concern crept its way onto his face, though he tried not to let it show. He had enough to deal with with his own pack; he had no time to look after a wayward werewolf in such a precarious position as Sasha was.

'Come on,' he eventually said despite himself, his voice gruff. 'It won't do you any good to stare at them.'

'You're right,' Sasha replied. 'I have to declare them.'

'What?' Derek nearly yelped. 'Are you trying to get yourself killed?'

'They're listed as Jane and John Does!' Sasha's anger flared up, her eyes flashing dangerously. 'Would you have my family left here to rot? To be used however the humans see fit? Is that the proper way to honour them?'

Derek stood slightly taken aback at this. At that moment, seeing her with her hands set on her hips, glaring at him in hatred, he realised just how young she was, barely eighteen or nineteen, if he was any judge. And he remembered all too well how he was at eighteen: passionate, filled with a burning desire for anger and revenge, and hot-headed, to the point of being suicidal. Cora was right; they wanted her on their side. That anger could just as easily turn on Derek and his pack. And Derek liked his danger where it didn't threaten him. He racked his brains, trying to think of a good argument.

'They don't know who you are. They've never seen you, they'll think you're just a human,' he tried. 'It'll be easier to gather information on them, and you'll pass under their radar.'

A flicker of uncertainty entered Sasha's green eyes. Derek held his breath. And then it went – to be replaced by cold hard determination.

She shook her head defiantly. 'No. How could I ever face any living member of my family again?'

'I went through the same as you did,' Derek reminded her. 'And I did the smart thing: I went underground.'

'Your family was never in any danger of staying unknown!' Sasha burst out furiously. 'How can you even say that? This is your home; everybody knew exactly what they would have wanted! My family is miles away from anywhere we once knew!'

Tears started to glisten in her eyes, though out of grief or anger, Derek didn't know.

'Imagine if you had left your family in an unknown location, to be marked in an unknown grave – if that – and –'

'I'll do it,' the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could help it.

Sasha stopped mid-rant, and Derek watched her face transform from misery to confusion. He resisted the sudden urge to laugh at her child-like expression. _What is wrong with me?_

'You'll do what?' She asked, hesitantly.

'I'll claim your family members,' said Derek, unable to stop himself. _If only somebody had been with me then, maybe things would have turned out differently._ 'On one condition: you can't come to the funeral.'


End file.
